


how not to play board games, as presented by blair waldorf and vanessa abrams

by ivermectin



Series: d&b @ nyu! [4]
Category: Gossip Girl (TV 2007)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banter, Friendship, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, POV Blair Waldorf, S3 AU, almost rated this M solely for the number of sex jokes in it, feels wrong tagging this one d/b when it's very gen, mention of dan/rachel, mentions of past nate/blair, mentions of past nate/vanessa, smallest mention of blair/chuck, this series as a whole will have the slowest slow burn in the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:02:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29673933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivermectin/pseuds/ivermectin
Summary: Dan is exhibiting enough high energy that Blair suspects he’d gone and bought coffees for all three of them, and then when Blair and Vanessa hadn’t shown up, he’d drunk all three coffees too.He’s a disaster, she thinks fondly,a fucking mess. No wonder Serena liked him.
Relationships: Nate Archibald/OFC, Vanessa Abrams & Blair Waldorf, Vanessa Abrams & Blair Waldorf & Dan Humphrey
Series: d&b @ nyu! [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2106012
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	how not to play board games, as presented by blair waldorf and vanessa abrams

**Author's Note:**

> here we go!! yeah i know pace-wise this is going to take ages to deliver the dair, i hope for it to be totally worth the wait when it does get there. ~~oh hey that rhymed!~~

The next evening finds Blair starting stage 2 of Mission: Befriend Abrams. She enters Vanessa’s dorm room with a box of pastries, a stack of DVDs that Nate had told her Vanessa liked, as well as a bottle of red wine, just for the hell of it. If you’re going to go all out, might as well be over the top, right?

Vanessa opens the door, gives Blair a sceptical look. “What stage of your evil scheme is this, Blair?”

Blair smiles sweetly, handing Vanessa the box of pastries and the bottle of wine, brushing past her into the room. “Movie night.”

“I’ll never turn down free food,” Vanessa says. “But I’m ready for the knife in my back.”

“What would make you feel better?” Blair asks.

“I don’t know, a gesture of trust?” Vanessa shrugs. “We’ll work it out. For now, let’s just watch whatever you’ve got.”

They’re indie films, most of which Blair’s never seen, but Vanessa’s clearly familiar with them, and relaxed in her environment, watching the films projected onto the wall while she sits there with her legs stretched out, occasionally drinking from the bottle, which she ever so often offers Blair. At first Blair refuses, but eventually figures, _fuck it_ , she wanted to be Vanessa’s friend, and she’s not going to be able to do that if Vanessa thinks Blair’s just some uptight girl with her head up her own ass. So she drinks from the bottle too, and hands it back.

They get pleasantly tipsy, fall asleep together, and miss their morning class. They’re woken up by a confused Dan Humphrey knocking at the door. He’s holding two stacks of handwritten notes, and giving them a quizzical look.

“Neither of you showed up to class today,” he says, almost accusingly, before handing both of them a bundle of paper each. “What would you do without me?”

Blair wonders whether he wrote the notes out twice, or got them photocopied. He’s Dan Humphrey, anything is possible.

“Study on our own and ace it regardless?” Blair asks, raising an eyebrow, even as she takes the notes from him. To her delight, Vanessa laughs.

“Oh, no, no, _no_ ,” Dan says, shaking his head. “I do not like the sound of this.”

“So it’s okay for _you_ to be friends with Blair Waldorf, but not me?” Vanessa asks, and she sounds a little pissed off.

“No, I just,” Dan gestures vaguely, looking for words. “One of you is bad enough, but two of you? You probably hunt Dan Humphreys for sport.”

“Oh my god, shut _up_ ,” Vanessa snorts, laughing, rolling up the notes and swatting at his shoulder.

“No, I’m serious,” Dan says. “This is like… an unholy alliance.” He levies Blair with a solemn look, ruined entirely by the laughter in his eyes. “You’re _stealing_ my best friend.”

“You dated my best friend!” Blair points out. “And then you broke up with her and had sex with a high school teacher!”

Vanessa’s eyes widen. “You did what?”

Dan sighs. “Not my finest moment,” he admits, agreeably. “Come on though, are you both just going to lie here all day? Chelsea from Theology is starting a Scrabble tournament, I think we should sign up. Nate’s here too, he’s flirting with her, I think.”

“You left Nate with someone who plays Scrabble for fun?” Blair asks, raising an eyebrow. “He hates that.”

“Chelsea is a layered, nuanced person,” Dan says. “When I left them, they were playing Uno.”

“Who was winning?” Vanessa asks.

Blair groans, putting her head in her hands. “I hate you both.”

“Yeah, honey, we know,” Vanessa says, but she’s smirking. She takes one of Blair’s hands, one of Dan’s. “Let’s go kick Chelsea’s ass at Scrabble?”

“Assuming that she’s still there and not doing the deed with Nate in some supply closet,” Blair mutters, but she lets Vanessa take her hand, and the three of them march out of the room like middle schoolers, Blair and Vanessa still in crumpled clothing, and Dan exhibiting enough high energy that Blair suspects he’d gone and bought coffees for all three of them, and then when Blair and Vanessa hadn’t shown up, he’d drunk all three coffees too.

 _He’s a disaster_ , she thinks fondly, _a fucking mess. No wonder Serena liked him._

Blair’s prediction isn’t right, per say, but it’s not wrong, either. When they do stumble upon Nate and Chelsea, the two of them are still playing Uno, but their clothes are tellingly crumpled and disorganised, and there’s something that looks almost like pastel pink lipstick on Nate’s cheek.

“Nate, I cannot believe you,” Blair huffs, walking over to Nate and Chelsea, pushing them aside to sit in between them, pulling out tissues and make-up remover from her bag, dabbing at his face. “Sometimes I think you age in reverse.”

“You’re a real mother hen, you know that?” Nate asks. But he smiles at her, so she knows that the sentiment is sweet.

“So, we’re here for Scrabble,” Vanessa says, sitting next to Nate, leaning over him and using him practically like a cushion.

“Don’t bully him, we can play whatever Nate wants to play,” Dan says, leaning over Nate, looking at his cards. “Dude, whose turn is it?”

Chelsea is studying the scene with badly-hidden amusement. “His.”

“Oh, perfect,” Dan says, taking a Draw 4 card from Nate’s pile and slamming it down.

Blair giggles despite herself.

“Bro, I was saving that,” Nate says, long-sufferingly.

Chelsea slams a Draw 4 card right back, and Nate gives Dan a look, like, _look what you’ve done now._

Blair sighs, picks up the deck, counts out seven cards without looking at them, hands them to Dan. “Here, play on your own merit, Humphrey. Stand on your own two feet for once.”

Dan gives her an unamused look, but takes the cards. Blair takes Vanessa by the elbow, leads her over to the other side of the table.

“What now?” Vanessa asks.

“Now we watch them and make fun of them,” Blair says. “Oh, and there’s Jenga, or Connect 4, or Guess Who if you want to play.”

“Watching is fine, I guess,” Vanessa says. “Or, wait, we don’t want to fall behind, right?” She brandishes the notes that Dan’s written out for them. “Let’s study.”

One and a half hours later, Blair is engrossed in the most engaging debate and conversation she’s had with anyone in what feels like years, Dan’s notes for them spread across the table, Vanessa highlighting points and arguing with Blair methodically, when she disagrees. Blair hadn’t realised how much she’d craved intellectual conversation of this level until she’d gotten it, and she’s surprised when Dan sits in between them and tells them what the time is.

And then less surprised when he asks Vanessa to bring him up to speed, and shares his opinion as well.

“You’re all nerds,” Nate says, fondly, ruffling Dan’s hair as he walks by their table.

“Catch you later,” Chelsea says, smiling, her arm wrapped around Nate, the sparkle in her eyes making Blair wonder if this is so much more than a one-time no-strings kind of thing, for her. She wonders what it is for Nate.

“Sure thing, Chels,” Dan says, smiling. “We still owe you that game of Scrabble; prepare to come fourth.”

“I’m sure the only one coming fourth will be you,” Chelsea says, still smiling pleasantly, before she and Nate walk off, not looking back.

“Okay, that was legendary,” Vanessa says, laughing, elbowing Dan. Blair can see something else in her expression though, something Dan seems to have missed entirely.

“I don’t know how Nate manages to do it,” Dan says, wonderingly. “All these girls, in love with him at the drop of a hat.”

“Humphrey, stop being redundant, he’s Nate Archibald. He’s a beautiful and charismatic kind-hearted man. And he’s rich, which always helps,” Blair points out.

Vanessa snorts. “He is very pretty. Good for him.”

“I bet she’s going to fuck him,” Blair says to Dan, watching his expression. “Like, with a dildo and everything.”

“Yeah, because she just carries a dildo around in her purse to fuck Nate Archibald with,” Dan says, deadpan.

“Don’t worry darling, I’m sure you’ll find someone one day,” Blair says, all faux-sweetness.

Vanessa snorts, kisses Dan’s cheek. Dan scowls, but he doesn’t look hurt or offended or even mildly annoyed. It’s startling, how good-natured he is, despite everything. Blair doesn’t quite get him.

Later, after they’ve had lunch and they’re in their afternoon lecture, Blair sitting next to Vanessa, Dan in his dorm because this is his free hour, Blair discreetly writes Vanessa a note, and slides it over to her.

_you ok?_

The response is immediate.

_why wouldn’t I be?_

Blair tries to make eye-contact with her, but Vanessa is looking ahead with the sort of denial that Blair finds incredibly impressive.

_I saw how you looked @ Chelsea when she left w/ Nate. r u still carrying a torch for him?_

Vanessa frowns, then, her fingers crumpling the paper into a little ball.

Blair feels a strange stab of something, something like guilt, because she hadn’t meant to hurt Vanessa. A part of her is aware that if her intuition is paying off, she has something on Vanessa, something she can use. But a bigger part of her doesn’t want to think like that anymore; doesn’t want to behave like that. The past day she’s spent with Vanessa has been strangely fun – the other girl can match her in wit and banter and in making fun of Dan and making fun of Nate, and it’s a strange feeling, realising that they don’t need to compete with each other, that they maybe work better as allies, as comrades.

It’s this feeling specifically that has her write, _I get it, because I’ve been there. sort of. I know what it’s like to envision a future with Nate & not have it. I know what it’s like to put more of yourself in a relationship than you’re given. I’m happy with Chuck, now. And I’ve learnt that I don’t need to date N to be happy. you can be happy, with or without him._

Vanessa reads the note, and then seems to read it again. After a few minutes, she folds it up, puts it in her pocket.

 _I really hope this being nice thing sticks,_ Vanessa sends back. _Because fuck me, but I think I actually like this version of Blair Waldorf._

Blair smiles.

 _I hope so too,_ she writes back. She writes, _you and Dan are losers, but you’re fun to hang out with_ , and then scratches out the _you and Dan are losers but._

She stares straight ahead, expression perfectly neutral, as Vanessa stifles her snort of laughter behind a hand.

College still sucks, Blair thinks, but maybe, just maybe, if these new friendships stick, it’ll be survivable and tolerable.

 _We’re going to kick Chels’ ass at Scrabble,_ Blair writes in the margin of Vanessa’s notebook. _But we also have to defeat Dan._

 _Obviously,_ Vanessa writes in Blair’s notebook. _Not debatable._

For some reason, this entire interaction reminds Blair of the moment she’d befriended Serena. She tries not to think too hard about it.

**Author's Note:**

> more coming soon! i was going to give nate a GAY love interest and a queer arc but chelsea just... happened? and i kind of love her already. *deep exhale* oh well, you know what they say. the best laid plans.......


End file.
